Reality Gem
The Reality Gem, also known as the Reality Stone, is one of the six Infinity Gems. A relic that contains and governs the aspect of reality in the universe, the Reality Gem is a terrifying weapon that is able to alter the fabric of reality itself, though is highly likely to alter whoever touches it in some random and unpredictable manner, perhaps ceasing to exist altogether. It was highly coveted by the Dark Elves until it was sealed away by Asgard. History Creation Long ago, there existed a pre-creation God that embodied several aspects of the universe. As time passed, this being became lonely, until it reached a point that it could no longer bear eternity and committed suicide. Its death was violent, producing a tremendous explosion of the separate aspects it represented. One of these aspects was Reality: the representation of existence within the universe. Eventually, this aspect as well as the others were discovered by the Elders of the Universe, and were gathered and forged into concentrated ingots. The one that contained the concept of existence of the universe became the Reality Gem. The Reality Stone Over time, the Reality Gem and the other Gems were altered into their present form. The Reality Gem, which was formerly a smooth yellow oval gem, became a rock glowing with a red light, and was remembered as the Reality Stone. Celestial Acquisition The Reality Stone was claimed at some point, among the other Infinity Stones, by the Celestials. It came into the possession of Arishem the Judge, using it to modify some of the laws of the universe to suit the Celestial needs and desires. While under his possession, the Reality Stone was modified using its altering capabilities on itself. It was changed from Stone form to that of a dark fluid, in an attempt to disguise its nature and make a marvelous show of its capabilities. The Aether During a period of strife among the Celestials, Arishem hid the Aether away in darkness, intending to take it back once he survived the conflict. However, he ended up perishing nonetheless, his body left behind on a dark world devoid of light. Discovery by the Dark Elves The world Arishem's corpse was left on happened to be the physical home of the Dark Elves of Svartalfheim, who had worshiped the primordial darkness of the universe as a godly power central to their way of life. Upon discovering the long-lost coprse of the Celestial, they began to fashion the advanced technologies present within its armor into their own developments, crafting weapons and starships among other things. They also managed to access the Celestial's memory logs, locating the Aether in the darkness between the Nine Realms and managing to access it during the approach of the Convergence, which enabled them to reach the Aether using a rift into the darkness. With the Aether in their possession, the Dark Elves debated on what course of action to take. Malekith the Accursed rose up and gathered his rogue faction, suggesting they use the Aether directly upon the arrival of the Convergence and use its Reality-altering capabilities to convert the universe from matter to dark matter, and cloak all of existence into eternal darkness once more. Ultimately, he won the favor of his race, allowing him to make preparations for the endeavor. Dark Elf Conflict In defense of the Nine Realms, King Bor lead Asgard rose to oppose the Dark Elves under Maleketh. A series of battles were fought, with great losses on both sides, though eventually Asgard managed to push the Dark Elves all the way back to their home realm just prior to the Convergence. As Maleketh prepared the Aether to fulfill his plot, the Asgardian army arrived in Svartalfheim and engaged in combat with the Dark Elves. As the Convergence occurred over a critical period of time and would eventually pass by, King Bor needed to distract Maleketh from the Aether long enough for the Convergence to end. With this, he sent his best warriors to the Aether's location to engage Maleketh and his guards while he directed his main army to defeat the Dark Elf army. At the critical moment of using the Aether, Bor manifested a Godblast to destroy the Aether. The Aether, however, simply reformed for Malekith to prepare to bond with it and use it to fulfill his wish. Bor's Honor Guard struck him in combat, and though they were slain by the Dark Elf they managed to separate him from the Aether and enable Bor to confront him in personal combat. Malekith managed to land a terrible wound upon the Asgardian King, though Bor threw him aside further from the Aether and instead used his Godforce to send the Aether away from the planet. In anger, Malekith struck him from behind with an apparently mortal wound, though his victory was empty; with the Aether gone and a great amount of his Dark Elves slain by the Asgardian army, he was forced to retreat with his select chosen, abandoning the rest of his force to the Asgardians in order to cover their escape. Upon the defeat of the Dark Elves, Bor acknowledged that Asgard could not destroy the Aether, but would be able to seal it away in darkness once more, taking advantage of the ending Convergence to contain it in a void between realms to prevent anyone from getting a hold of it again. He also enacted an information purge on the events of the battle and any knowledge of the Aether, ensuring that Asgard as well as the other factions of the Dark Elves who surrendered never knew where the Aether was hidden. Infinity Crusade When Odin learned of the Infinity Stones, he desired their great power for his own tyranical use. After gaining the Space, Power, and Mind Stones, Odin sought out the Reality Stone, using his newly acquired Mind Stone to plunder the universe for knowledge on the Reality Stone's location. To his surprise, he turned up knowledge from his father Bor, who had hidden away the Reality Stone in the form of the Aether. Dismissing Bor's disregard for taking the Aether's power for himself, Odin traveled to the interdimensional void and took the Aether, gathering it into the middle knuckle slot of his Infinity Gauntlet where it took its stone form once again. Return to the Void After Odin changed his ways and decided to separate the Infinity Stones, he returned the Reality Stone to the Aether Chamber where his father hid it long ago. He allowed it to return to its liquid Aether form, placing it back in its state prior to its association with Odin. Like his father before him, Odin enacted a memory purge to ensure none remembered its return. The Scarlet Witch During HYDRA's experiments with the Tesseract, one of their subjects they experimented upon was accidentally sent away from Earth into the Aether chamber. This subject, Wanda Maximoff, had a brief encounter with the Aether and through its reality altering capabilities granted her powers of magic, before sending her back to Earth. Return of the Convergence On the approach of the next Convergence event, the Dark Elves on Svartalfheim were found by Wanda during her journey from Earth, having been sent to look for the Aether. The Dark Elves used their magic to try and influence her to help them find the Aether for themselves, sensing that she was blessed with its power. When she refused, they engaged her in combat and had a battle of perception, though she managed to endure their efforts. Seeing she would not cooperate for the time being, the Dark Elves retreated into the shadows and decided to wait for the Convergence. Shortly after, Wanda returned to the planet and was able to trace a portion of the Aether's power through one of the many rifts in reality the Convergence was beginning to form. She used this rift to return to Earth. Simultaneously, another rift on Earth brought the human Jane Foster, the Earth-born lover of Thor, directly to the Aether chamber where it bestowed a portion of itself to bond with her before sending her back. When Thor returned to Earth to investigate the many other rifts forming across the planet, he met Wanda and planned to bring her and Jane to Asgard to help his companion heal from the substance in her, unknown to him as to what its nature was. However, shortly before their departure for Asgard, Jane brought Wanda to the Aether Chamber using another rift, allowing the rest of the Aether to bond with her. Now the host of the Aether, Jane sought to play along with Asgard while pretending to be in perfect health so she could be returned to Earth and not be bothered. When Thor brought Jane and Wanda to Asgard, Jane was inspected by the best healers, who could not assertain the nature of the force inhabiting her body despite their great knowledge. Only Odin, who had met the substance before, could recognize its nature as the Aether, also knowing in his heart it was the Reality Stone he once used. He confirmed the healers' theory that the Aether within was too strong for a mortal body to contain and, while perhaps granting her a degree of protection and power, was drawing on her life-force and would eventually destroy her from the inside. Knowing that extracting it from her immediately would likely result in her death, he put Thor and Wanda's worry aside by offering to think of an alternative solution which would be safer for Jane to have the Aether removed. For the time being, they would need to leave the Aether within Jane, and continue to study the extent of its bond with her to find a way to take it from her without her death. Description The Reality Gem was originally smooth and shaped like an oval, only 2 inches long from top to bottom. It was colored yellow, and all the powers and energies associated with its use were also colored yellow. Over time, the Reality Gem was transformed into its current form, known as the Reality Stone. It changed into something more like a rock, and became red in color. As time passed, one of its former users decided to alter its form further, changing it into an amorphous liquid which kept its red color, though became shadowy and dark as well. Containment Device The Aether is the name given to the liquid substance of the Reality Stone by the Dark Elves. After the Dark Elf Conflict, Asgard created a construct to constrain the Aether which they called "the Chamber." The Chamber was placed within an interdimensional rift, the last remaining tear in the fabric of reality as the Convergence came to a full close, and was concealed within that interdimensional rift with dark magic, used to shroud the Chamber in shadow. The Chamber is a closely-guarded secret on Asgard; very few of the king's highest leaders are even aware of the existence of the Chamber, with general knowledge and official records stating that the Aether was simply a powerful form of dark magic used by the Dark Elves, and that it was cast into the void between realms to drift away into eternal nothingness, ceasing to exist. Powers/Abilities The Reality Stone embodies the universal aspect of Reality and existence. It can be seen as a sort of dial, a control unit for any and all things that exist within the universe, including their traits and aspects; as such, it provides its wielder access to anything pertaining to existence to infinite levels. This can be applied in a number of different ways. Physics Bending At its most basic level, the Reality Stone can twist the laws of the universe to the user's needs without outright contradicting them. *Physical enhancement beyond the norm, such as increased strength and speed. *Reorientation of force relative to objects, such as gravity pulling "down" towards a wall or ceiling, or affecting friction to cause objects sliding across slippery slopes to halt quickly. *Alteration of the traits of something to enable feats beyond its typical function, such as muscular elasticity. Randomness The Reality Stone can unwind any semblance of control over events. *Increasing randomness to make predictability and sequence less likely, causing more erratic chaos within reality. *Decreasing randomness to make predictability and sequence more likely, causing more controlled order within reality. Probability Manipulation The Reality Stone has control over the probability of events that occur within the universe no matter their nature. *Increase likelihood to make something more probable to happen. *Decrease likelihood to make something less probable to happen. *Enable something that would normally be impossible fully probable to happen. *Erase any likelihood of something that could normally happen from ever happening at all. Fortune Manipulation The Reality Stone can manifest and manipulate what is popularly believed to be "luck." *Bestowing "Good luck" upon something, altering events surrounding it towards its favor. *Bestowing "Bad luck" upon something, altering events surrounding it against its favor. Coincidence Manipulation The Reality Stone can also affect the nature of sequential happening. *Establishing the trait of reoccurrence for an event. *Increasing reoccurrence to become more frequent. *Decreasing reoccurrence to become more rare. *Erasing the trait of reoccurrence to make it never happen again. Logic Manipulation The Reality Stone can change the way logical thought works in the universe. *Logical application to an illogical concept. *Illogical application to a logical concept. Illusion of Reality The Reality Stone can create an illusion of any reality the user can think of. *Formation of illusions which actually alter the structure of the universe around others. *Manipulation of events and substances within illusionary realities. *Dismissal of illusions which return the structure of the universe to its natural state. Dimension Manipulation The Reality Stone has the power to affect alternate realities. *Creation of alternate realities with any sets of rules to fit the user's desires. *Manipulation of alternate realities to change whatever traits are present within. *Warp the fabric of reality to stretch or condense its effects and rules. *Nullify the warping of any reality to prevent happenings from taking place. *Dismissal of alternate realities, erasing them entirely along with anything within. True Creation The Reality Stone has the ability to literally create form out of nothing. *Conjuring atoms, energy, structures, and items out of thin air or the vacuum of space even without material components. *Forming new elements and powers that do not exist by simple desire of will. True Alteration The Reality Stone is capable of literally altering anything within the universe into being something else. *Partial alteration to a new form or aquire new traits, such as transmuting matter, changing the melting point of substances or malleability of structures. *Full alteration to a new form, such as transforming light into water. True Destruction The Reality Stone has the ability to literally cause form to cease to exist. *Dismissing atoms, energy, beings, and obstacles within the universe to complete nothingness, with nothing left. Wish Fulfillment The Reality Stone can grant its user any wish they desire, even on a universal scale. *Enable the user to have anything created. *Enable the user to have anything changed in any way they desire. *Enable the user to erase anything. Side-Effect Once the Reality Gem became the Reality Stone, it seemingly lost its controlled quality and became highly unstable. Therefore, anyone that attempts to access its power suffers the risk of being overwhelmed and randomly altered by this power, affected in some strange way, or ultimately erased from existence entirely. When its user is destroyed, the stone is temporarily "left open," allowing its warping energy to be released into the area around it and potentially causing severe altercations to the fabric of reality. Lesser beings, such as humans, would be quickly killed and destroyed by this power, simultaneously tearing a hole in space-time which will randomly change anything that comes near it, randomly create things, and randomly erase others. However, it is possible to avert this effect if one uses a containment device; in its current form as the Aether, the Reality Stone can be drawn within a host, inhabiting their body and using the user as its own container. In its current form, the Aether chiefly enables its user to transform matter into dark matter, and possesses a parasitic nature by seeking out host bodies and drawing energy from their life-force. This has the potential to kill weaker hosts, though strong hosts, while still affected by this drainage, can use the Aether's power to their advantage for a time. Summary Overall, the Reality Stone is the manifestation of the universe's existence, governing over all aspects of the fabric of reality. Whoever can wield the power of the Reality Stone has absolute authority and command over anything that has to do with existence and reality. Gallery Infinity Gems 05.png|The Reality Gem in its original form Trivia